Electra

Aside from the nearly-dormant flower garden, this particular bit of parkland didn't have much going for it. No performance artists, no farmer's market, not so much as a swingset to attract the local children. It looked like the sort of park where the people who worked nearby might sit down for lunch at the trio of picnic tables next to the garden, but at the moment Alicia had the place entirely to herself. Until, that is, something very odd happened. A quiet rustle from a nearby tree drew her attention, just in time to see a bud forming on a lower branch. It grew quickly, first to the size of the other new leaves, then larger, then very much larger. The bough began to bend under the weight, even as the bud unfurled massive pink petals, each one the size of a garbage bag and smelling richly of magnolia. As if that weren't noteworthy enough, when the flower was fully open, a person stepped out! She was short and curvy, with long braids of green hair pinned in ringlets around her head and decorated with flowers. The Mother Nature effect she exuded was only heightened by the laughing, green-haired baby on her hip. Her back was to Alicia as she waved a hand and banished the flower, returning the tree to normal, but it was only a moment before she turned and noticed she was not alone. A look of momentary consternation was replaced by a smile as she caught sight of the diaphanous butterfly wings. "Hello there," she said with casual cheer. "I wasn't expecting company here at this hour."

Miss A pursed her lips for a moment, concentrating on a fiddly bit of fiberglass patching she was applying to his shoulder. "Everyone's entitled to their privacy," she finally said. "Some people think that talking about the past helps make it better, but I think sometimes you're better off just moving on and trying to make whatever you can of the now and the future. If you ever want to talk about it, I'll listen, but you don't have to." She smoothed the patch down with her fingers, then wiped away the excess epoxy resin with a cloth. "Joseph is going to have to learn to accept his past, too," she added quietly. "Learn to live with it, or it'll drive him to further madness. They'll keep him away from you from now on."

"Don't be stupid," Miss A told him brusquely, and it seemed there was more of Gina in that than Miss A's usual charismatic cheer. "Heroes back each other up. If you hadn't gone after him, he might have targeted the civilians instead, and it would've been a hell of a mess. He gave you a mean sucker punch, but you did all right. And don't make this some kind of male-female thing either," she warned. "I'll have you know that this thing is sexless as a Barbie Doll, so it doesn't even count. Now lay back." She gave a gentle nudge to his less-bruised shoulder to get him to lay down on the exam table. "You got lucky, no broken bones, no internal bleeding. The bruises will be tender for a day or so, but your body's own accelerated healing will take care of them fairly quickly. I'll give you some salve that will ease the soreness. Now let's see the suit."

Right on cue, a single sheet of paper fluttered down from the catwalk, silent and inoffensive. It landed squarely atop Freebooter's head as lightly as the first snowflake of winter. Then, with a sudden rustle and crinkle, it began to grow, stretching and folding itself with dizzying speed, rolling the villain to one side, then the other as a sturdy and very large paper box formed around him. In seconds, the mysterious pirate was totally encased, only a silhouette visible through the walls of his fibrous prison. "That should be pretty solid," Papercut called down. " But he can hear you in there. Go head and ask."

Koshiro will use his Move Object to, as requested, make up another villain containment box around Freebooter. Since he's flat-footed, I'm going to power attack for 3. A shoddy roll nets a 17, which I am told will hit the hapless villain. Grapple check is a 38.

"Repairable or replaceable," Miss A agreed, gathering up the nodes and setting them aside absently. She lifted her scanner and pointed it at him, letting it gather medical data while she assessed him visually. It was nothing she hadn't done dozens of times before on various heroes, but now she felt shaky, unfocused, for reasons she wasn't sure she wanted to explore. Right now it was time to do her job, she reminded herself, and think about other things later. "How are you feeling?" she asked him, leaning in to examine the bruising on his ribs and collarbone. "You took some hard hits."

Miss Americana watched Harrier as he took off into the sky, but then turned her attention to the civilians on the ground. A few clasped hands and autographs did a lot to soothe and pacify the gathering. As she worked the crowd, she made sure to toss in some nice statements about Harrier's work, and how lucky it was that he had seen the danger and moved to avert it so quickly. After another ten minutes or so, with the crowd dispersing and technicians from the Freedom League showing up to collect the remains of the device, Miss A took off into the sky as well, swooping once around downtown before angling off towards Hanover and the gleaming cylinder of The Lab. Just before reaching the lab, Miss A banked and dove, making a quick descent that took her behind buildings and hid her from sight as she landed in the back lot of a nondescript office building. Emerson had orders to let Harrier in, rather than leaving the Omegadrone standing where anyone could see him, so the parking lot was deserted. Letting out her breath on a long sigh, she opened the door and stepped into her private lab.

Miss A threw up an arm automatically to protect herself from the debris, but the flying shards of metal merely nicked her costume here and there before bouncing harmlessly away. She considered reminding Harrier of the dangers from collateral damage during city fights, but something about his expression suggested it would fall on deaf ears right now. He'd had to destroy that forge. In any case, no real harm had been done to any people, and Fleur de Joie or one of her associates could repair the damage to the park itself. Graceful as a dancer, she spiraled down to land next to Harrier. She was quiet for a moment as she looked him over for damage. "You're going to need to stop in at my lab," she told him. "I'll get your projector fixed up again. Are you feeling all right?"

"I'm sorry you lost your world," Miss A told the mad psychic, wringing her hands empathetically. The man was too far away and too far gone to see that the motion was in fact very controlled, each twist adjusting a different finger joint to a minute extent. "But this isn't the way to honor what you lost. This is wrong, and you have to stop!" She held out her hands again, and this time the beam that emerged was nebulous and diffuse, a deep blue haze that enveloped Joseph rather than striking him. Within moments, the attack sapped the energy he was using to power his defensive field, sending him crumpling to his knees. Miss A nodded fractionally to Harrier, trusting he would know what to do.

Miss A is going to spend another HP to stunt the power feat Stunning Attack onto her blast, then fire that at Joseph. The roll is a 29. That hits, so it's a DC 24 Fortitude save.

Even as he thought that, Miss Americana looped around in the air, flying back towards the combat. She frowned as she took in the damage to Harrier's holographic projector, and to the suit itself. Harrier's Omegadrone armor did a good job of protecting the flesh within it, but even that couldn't hold indefinitely under this kind of telekinetic barrage. Extending her hands, she shot a bright beam of laser fire at the unassuming-looking villain. It grabbed his attention well enough, but unfortunately it didn't seem to have much effect besides that. "Halt your attack!" she called to the psychic. "You're endangering civilians and putting lives and property at risk. Whatever you think you're doing isn't worth this!" She fired again, another shot that hit its mark and bounced harmlessly away, making her bite her lip nervously. This was a more formidable opponent than she'd thought.

Miss A is going to hit Joseph with her lazors. 1d20+14=25 That's a DC 29 toughness save for ol' Joe. Edit: Since he passed the save, I'll use extra effort to surge and spend HP to burn off the fatigue. Another laser shot: Another hit.

25, skill mastery

Wander Spoiler Alert Fleur de Joie Semiotic Drift Miss Americana Frozen Shadows Papercut It's Gonna Be the Future Soon

Fleur gave Supercape a look of pleasantly tolerant incomprehension as he explained what he'd done, much as she would give her husband when he got off on a tangent about the intricacies of deep-space gravitic theory. Stesha didn't consider herself a slouch in the science department, but she was no physicist. Since the takeaway was obviously that Supercape had come back flowerless, having placed the plant where it ought to be, she lost no more time in turning to her own business. "Once we do this," she warned the still-invisible force that had inhabited the humans, "you have to leave. We appreciate your concern about the thing you trapped here, and we'll be glad to see it gone too, but we are the protectors of Earth now. We look out for it, and for the people you are hurting. It's time for you to go." With that, she sent a vine shooting down into the pit, like a time-lapse video of a plant growing and rooting itself to the ground. Tendrils leapt from the main stalk, some digging into the dirt, others reaching out to encircle the massive prison. Within moments, the vine had braided itself into a ring around the base of the prison, wide enough to just exceed its diameter. Fleur closed her eyes and raised her arms, and suddenly a glowing green portal appeared within the ring. The smell of dirt and sewage was replaced by an overwhelming smell of vegetation as the prison began to shift from its place.

Miss Americana hesitated for just a moment as Harrier headed off to deal with the possibly murderous psychic in the bushes, but she did not follow him. He could take care of himself if anyone could, and these civilians needed to be distracted and moved quickly. If anyone could provide a distraction, it was Miss Americana. Fluffing her blonde curls once with her fingers, she took to the air, flying just over the heads of the busy workers. "Excuse me for just a moment, everyone," she called out, her voice seeming to amplify itself naturally as all those assembled fell silent to look at her. She met eyes here and there smiling into them as though making a special, personal connection with each member of the crowd. "I know you're all very busy, but it would really be a great help to me if you would all move to that side of the park, just for a few minutes. It's quite important to me," she assured them, shamelessly personalizing the request in the hopes that it would move them that much faster. She began moving herself, still talking, drawing the people with her like a beautiful Pied Piper. As she went, she chanced a quick glance, no more, to where the real fight was happening.

Miss A is going to use Diplomacy to get the crowd moving away from the thing they're building and over to the other side of the park. With Gina piloting the robot and skill mastery in play, that's a result of 40.

Wander initially mirrored Midnight's investigations, stepping cautiously towards the windows as she tried to accustom herself to the strange feel of this room. As she approached, though, the picture became blurry, suddenly flipping back and forth like a television stuck between two channels. She saw glimpses of her own life overlaid with a life that was softer, safer: Erin Prime's life. After a moment, though, the window seemed to make up its mind and began to replay familiar scenes from her own life. She turned away abruptly, not wanting to see more, and returned to the exact center of the room, drawing her bat. "So we're just supposed to wait?" she asked, a slight edge to her voice. "In here?"

Ouch, IC does not feel like humoring me today. Wander goes on 11.

"Ten percent is less than the goddamn flatscans back in the USA want to peel off, that's for damn sure," Lady Laser agreed, her keen gaze focused on their new potential home. Even as she spoke, her busy mind recorded, mapped, analyzed. "But it's the civil defense bit that I wanna know about. You got some decent security, I can see that well enough, but the world is full of bastards who want what ain't theirs, including us and our powers. I see all the time about how this place is being threatened by one place or sanctioned by someplace else. How often do folks actually have to up and defend New Freedom? Is this terrorist thing just the latest threat?"

"We were hoping to consult with you about a case you were involved in, Mr. Johnson," Fleur said pleasantly, her face revealing nothing but good cheer. "I don't believe it's actually anything interesting, but even superheroes sometimes get boring homework." She sighed for that sad reality, then looked over to Chloe. "I would hate to think of bothering the two of you, but it should only take a few minutes. Maybe Chloe and I could play a little hooky while the boys discuss paperwork. Would you like to visit my home, Chloe?" she asked with a friendly smile. "I have flowers so big that we could sit on one and have a picnic."

Miss A goes on 18, so Harrier gets to go first.

Harrier had hardly touched down when he felt a soft whoosh of air and heard the thud of feet beside him. Miss Americana gave him a confident smile, still holding the scanner she'd tuned to find him. Whatever had been bothering Gina was entirely absent now, hidden or ameliorated now that she was in her beautiful and impervious shell. "They're making good progress," she commented, apparently to thin air with Harrier now hidden. "But it doesn't look like they're in the finishing stages. Let me do a quick analysis to see if there's anything technological controlling them, or if it's psychic or metaphysical. We'll get the civilians away, then destroy the device." Her voice was reassuring, matter-of-fact, a voice he'd heard her use many times to calm panicked civilians.

Gina stared at the floor, clenching her hands into fists and digging her nails into her palms as though she could physically hold onto the dregs of her composure with a tight enough grip. Even as she struggled not to hyperventilate, a corner of her mind recorded and processed Murdock's words. He's leaving, she told herself, and was able to turn her face to the screen. And there's hero work to do, lives at stake. Pull yourself together, you goddamn gutless coward! "'M fine," she gulped, sucking in another deep breath. "Go, I'll catch up with you." She waved vaguely towards the door and fixed her eyes on what was taking shape on the screen.

Gina startled at the sudden movement, knocking the bowl of popcorn to the floor. She watched Murdock watching the screen, then turned her attention to the news itself. Something about that sphere was obviously incredibly agitating to him, and damned if it didn't niggle at the back of her massive mind as well. "Yes," she told him, "just give me a moment and I can bring it up on screen... No," she interrupted herself firmly. "That's stupid, we'll never see everything. Come this way." With barely a hesitation, she led him back through the kitchen and through the well-concealed and heavily fortified door that led to the basement. Lights flicked on as they descended the stairs, even as she called out a string of coded commands that would keep the automated defenses from annihilating Murdock as an intruder. She fought the ringing in her ears that grew as they descended, the speeding of breath, the clawing panic in her stomach that someone, a real living someone was down in her sanctuary. Someone she couldn't control or banish or turn off the way she could Sharl. It was, she realized, not at all the same, and nothing she was prepared for. Gina focused her attention and headed towards the ring of computers and equipment that made up her command center, but as soon as she heard the footsteps behind her, little dots began to form and explode at the edges of her vision. Bending at the waist, she put her hands on her knees and squeezed her eyes shut. Panic attacks, she reminded herself, were completely useless and counterproductive. She just wasn't going to permit herself to have one. "Activate surveillance network downtown quadrant, Hayes Park, eighty percent resolution," she wheezed, hoping her words would be audible. "Main screen." At the command, the computers in the ring began flickering to life, apparently quite able to discern Gina's wishes. The largest screen lit up with a view of Freedom City as a whole from high overhead, and within moments had zoomed in to Hayes Park with its strange collection of builders.